A midwife told a woman in labour to ‘hurry up’ because she was desperate to get home for a takeaway curry, a tribunal has heard.

Jeanette Matthews allegedly said: ‘If you don’t hurry up and have the baby, I’m going to cut you.’

She also told the patient, who was assigned to her at Yorkshire’s Airedale General Hospital in February 2011, that the unit was short-staffed and she did not want to be there, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) heard.

Matthews faces charges relating to alleged misconduct and lack of competence after a mother, only known as ‘Patient A’, complained.

Greg Unwin, for the NMC, told the hearing: ‘It is said that the registrant was rude in her conduct, that she inappropriately asked Patient A to stop using pain relief.

‘Ms Bennett interviewed the registrant about the incident and the registrant denied that she had told the patient to stop using her pain relief.

‘She did admit that on occasion she would sometimes say to mothers that she might have to give them a little cut in order to encourage them to push harder.’